THE wreckage of an aircraft which went missing in Indonesia’s remote region of Papua on Sunday has been found by local villagers.

The shorthaul plane, operated by Indonesian carrier Trigana Air Service, had lost contact with air traffic controllers around 15.00 local time after taking off from Jayapura, the capital of Papua province, while en route to Oksibil Airport in Indonesia.

It is still unknown if any passengers survived the crash as search and rescue teams attempted to reach the mountainous site early Monday morning.

There were 54 passengers aboard the ATR 42-300 twin-turboprop plane, consisting of 44 adults, five crew members, four children and one infant. No tourists were on the flight, according to local media reports.

Trigana is a small airline company operating in remote parts of Indonesia. It has been on the EU’s list of banned carriers since 2007, along with other local carriers such as Lion Air.

The ban forbids those on the list from operating in European airspace due to safety and regulatory concerns.

This is the latest in a series of unfortunate air disasters to befall Indonesia, including an incident in December 2014 which saw an AirAsia jet carrying 162 passengers crash into the Java Sea.

SKYSCANNER has revealed that travellers from Malaysia begin planning their holidays earlier than others from around the world, according to information gathered from the travel metasearch site’s user data in June 2015.

Booking 59 days in advance before a trip is the global average. Malaysian travellers, however, book 79 days in advance to top the list, followed closely by Taiwanese travellers who plan 77 days ahead. Chinese travellers land on the other end of the spectrum, booking their itineraries only 40 days in advance.

Singaporean and Japanese travellers book 64 days in advance, placing them slightly above the global average.

In a chart dominated by Asian nations, the only two non-Asian countries are the US and the UK, logging advance bookings at 56 and 69 days respectively.

Vietnam, India and Indonesia all fall below the global average and recorded 48, 56 and 57 days accordingly.

THE ringgit depreciation may result in stronger demand for domestic travel, according to officials from Tourism Malaysia and inbound players in the country.

This year, Tourism Malaysia is targeting an increase of 5.7 per cent in domestic tourism as compared with 2014.

Iskandar Mirza Mohd Yusof, director, domestic marketing division of Tourism Malaysia, said: “The weak ringgit will affect people’s propensity to travel and we expect to see a shift from outbound to traveling within the country.

“Based on findings from MATTA Fair in March, the top five domestic destinations are Kedah (including Langkawi), Pahang, Johor, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.”

To further grow domestic travel, the upcoming MATTA Fair from September 4-6 will see a total of 110 tourism trade players participate under the umbrella of Tourism Malaysia.

State travel organisations from Sabah, Langkawi, Johor, Negri Sembilan, Terengganu, Kedah, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, Pahang and Putrajaya will also participate in the fair.

The ringgit started falling in late 2014 and had dropped to 3.99 to the US dollar today from 3.16 a year ago.

GTA will no longer exhibit at key travel marts including World Travel Market 2015, Fitur and ITB Berlin, saying it will instead invest in deeper client engagement in-market.

Ivan Walter, CEO of GTA, said: “Our investment today is increasingly focused on new ways to have deeper and better quality engagements with our customers. Our global sales and sourcing teams are in-market, meeting clients and suppliers face-to-face every day and listening to their needs.

“Such frequency of contact and the exciting new opportunities technology presents to connect means we are less reliant on some trade shows to fulfill this need.”

The decision reflects the maturity of most major European source markets, the ease of connectivity between countries, and the volume of GTA’s business in the region, said a company statement.

Its size and industry-standing means GTA is less reliant on annual meetings with large audiences to enhance the depth and quality of conversations that will help its business – and that of its partners – grow, it added.

THE Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Committee (YPTDC), keen to expand direct international air connectivity to the province, has met SilkAir to discuss the possibility of starting flights to a second international gateway there.

YPTDC, part of a trade delegation to Singapore last month, would like the Singapore-based regional carrier to consider adding direct flights between Singapore and Lijiang International Airport, in addition to the current four-weekly flights to regional capital Kunming.

Oliver Huang, marketing division director of YPTDC, said: “There are now 12 airports in Yunnan with another four under construction and being planned, making it the province with the most number of airports in China.”

“We want more direct international flights,” said Huang, noting the first intercontinental direct flight was launched between Kunming and Paris in December 2014, while flights between Kunming and Vancouver via Shanghai started in June this year.

However, a SilkAir spokesman has told TTG Asia e-Daily that there are currently no plans for direct flights to Lijiang.

“Nevertheless, we continue to seek opportunities to enhance our network and are constantly reviewing potential new destinations to fly to,” said the airline spokesperson.